ANTIVIRUS and TIME MACHINE / Time Capsule

I agree.

I had initially wanted antivirus etc. on my new Mac, and so bought the Intego suite. Seemed ok at first. However, began to have real problems with Time Capsule backups, and Time Machine never worked. Moreover, my Mac became incredibly slow, and even trying to write emails resulted in the spinning beach ball of death appearing.

Under advice from an Apple Technician I reinstalled Leopard without adding the Intego Suite. Since then my Mac is wonderful, and now does 'what is says on the tin'.
I'm happy, although can't help being a little worried about viruses, as I use Word, Powerpoint etc., and share files with people using Windows.

So, what is the verdict? Do Macs need extra third party antivirus and firewall software not? If they do, and there any that do not wreck havoc with the OS.

I use Intego Virus Barrier X5, and at first Time Machine would not work at all, I always had to force quit . Then I went into the anti-virus and disabled the real-time scanning of my Time Machine drive. Once I did that Time Machine has worked fine for the last 4 months. I would think that this procedure wouldn't cause any problems with viruses since if you are protecting your computer ,then your backups should be virus free.

Yes, I too turned off various functions of the virus scanner, as I had been advised to do so.

However, the problems with my Mac kept on mounting. Only 7 weeks old, and top-spec yet it was slow, froze all the time, and apps did not work properly. Was like being back on Windows! Since removing Intego and reinstalling leopard all seems well. So, I'm loathe to risk installing Intego products again... Of course, it might have been a problem with Leopard, but that seems unlikely doesn't it?

I suppose it all boils down to whether we really need AV or not. Can't help feeling it might be better to be safer rather than sorry...

I'd originally opted for Intego X5 as it seemed to well regarded. Perhaps it was rushed out for Leopard?

When you say TM was not working, what do you mean? Mine would not move at all. Could enter it and the was just stuck there with the 'lovely' vortex starfield thingy to look at.

I haven't used any virus detection on 4 Macs over the past couple years. Why create problems with Time Machine and slow down your system when it is not needed?

OS X is based on Unix and runs in low permissions mode. Any program installation require the entry of an administrator password.

Contrast this to Windows, where 90%+ of home users run as Local Administrator (with full machine permissions). It is difficult software to function correctly when running as Power User (as opposed to Administrator). Even then, you have to logout and login as Admin to apply System Updates. It is no wonder why Windows machines get many viruses even when running antivirus. There are major architectural differences in the operating systems.

I can confirm also that still now Jan 2009 the Time Machine - Antivirus clash is still unresolved! I deleted my old Time Machine backup yesterday and started over again. It was still backing up today so I got really frustrated and checked Activity Monitor. I saw that "InterCheck" process that is used by Sophos was taking more than its usual share of CPU and that Backup was getting a smaller share. Then whilst still having a look at the Activity Monitor I disabled the Sophos on-line access thingy and immediately saw InterCheck drop out and backup picked up speed. I only had 32GB to backup so the problem was not hard to miss. Just like in the M$ world of windows, antivirus programs keep causing more problems than they actually solve. I only wish that Apple would create themselves an anti-virus program to protect their fans/customers much better.

Running anti-virus on Mac OS X is still useful in that it can prevent the spread of viruses that affect Windows. That said, OS X and UNIX are not 100% impenetrable, and assuming that that's the case can lead to insecure operation.

I've been using Sophos Anti-Virus for months with no trouble with Time Machine.

I've been dealing with Apple Tech Support for weeks now on this same issue, backups would fail, I would have to Repair my sparsesbundle, etc. Anyway I was a strong advocate until a few minutes ago when "Joe", a supposed "Product Specialist" for Time Capsule at Apple told me that Apple is aware of this problem that TC and Antivirus software don't work on the same Mac and that I'd have to remove my Antivirus software, erase my TC and use TC without any Antivirus software. He said he read my case notes, he'd seen this very often and did not need any further information from me about this, he was guaranteed that this was the issue. I asked him if he wanted my latest log files to just review since his deity-like disposition was about to render my $600 TC purchase moot, as my employer states that I have to run some kind of Antivirus software (if Mac's don't need them why do they sell it???). He was an arrogant jerk, quite honestly. Sure I didn't like his response, because he had already passed judgement and refused to pursue any further sources of debugging on my case. And he sure didn't speak to Apple taking back this $600 Time Capsule either.

< Edited by Host >

Do you exclude backups from being scanned by Sophos on access? I would like to but haven't been able to get Sophos to do so, despite choosing the backup volume on the exclusions list. I'd like to avoid the scanning window that pops up an interrupts what I am doing whenever a backup starts. Thanks!